Wireless communication devices, such as transponders, are commonly used to wirelessly communicate information about goods. For example, transponders may be attached to goods during their manufacture, transport and/or distribution to provide information, such as the good's identification number, expiration date, date of manufacture or “born on” date, lot number, and the like. The transponder may also be configured to receive and store security information concerning valuable goods, such as a portable computer. The transponder allows this information to be obtained unobtrusively using wireless communication with an interrogation reader without slowing down the manufacturing, transportation, and/or distribution process.
It may be desirable to provide a transponder or other wireless communication device that is also accessible for communications by a separate controller or other communication system using a direct interconnection. The controller may desire to retrieve information stored previously by an interrogation reader in the memory of the wireless communication device without having to employ wireless communication with the wireless communication device. The controller may also desire to use the wireless communication device as a “mailbox,” or memory storage area. The information stored by the controller in the wireless communication device's memory can be later retrieved by the controller and/or an interrogation reader. In this manner, the controller has effective use of the wireless communication device as a separate memory storage area that can also be wirelessly accessed by a wireless communication system. There may be any number of applications where this functionality is advantageous.
A problem exists when coupling the wireless communication device to the controller to provide the “mailbox.” Since a wireless communication device is usually provided in the form of an encapsulated integrated circuit (IC) chip, the only accessible interface to the wireless communication device is through the interface pins on the chip. Wireless communication devices typically do not contain an input or output port interface that allows communication through direct interfacing. Therefore, a need exists to find a method of directly interfacing a wireless communication device to a controller by other means, even if the wireless communication device was not intended to provide this functionality.
Further, some electronic objects or other controllers have their own wireless communication systems having an antenna separate from any wireless communication device that may be included with the controller. For example, consider a portable computer that has a Bluetooth transceiver. The Bluetooth transceiver is coupled to an antenna that is used by the portable computer for short-range wireless communication. However, the portable computer must be powered in order to provide power to the Bluetooth unit for wireless communication since Bluetooth transceivers are not passive devices, meaning that they require a power source to operate. It may be advantageous to provide a wireless communication device, such as a transponder, on the portable computer so that the portable computer may wirelessly communicate information without being powered. However, a cost effective method must be provided for doing so.
It may be desirable to store the identification of the portable computer in memory so that such information can be used during manufacturing and/or distribution for tracking. However, it may be necessary to communicate the identification information wirelessly even when the portable computer is not powered on. A wireless communication device coupled to the portable computer may be used to allow wireless communication of information concerning the portable computer even when the portable computer is not powered, since the wireless communication device can receive power from an incoming signal to provide power for communication.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide techniques for interfacing an external controller or other device directly to a wireless communication device without interfacing with an input port on the wireless communication device, something most wireless communication devices do not provide. Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a cost effective manner to provide a wireless communication device on objects already having a separate communications system, so that information concerning the object can still be wirelessly communicated even if the object and separate wireless communication system are not powered and therefore not operational.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate the scope of the present invention and realize additional aspects thereof after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments in association with the accompanying drawing figures.